During my Air Force days, I remember boarding a Delta flight in Atlanta for a (relatively) short hop to Dallas, and discovering my aircraft was an L-1011. Of course, the ATL-DFW segment was the first leg of a flight that continued to LAX, as I recall. Nice flight, albeit short, on a very underrated wide body jet.
Beautiful aircraft. Loved it a lost. Two were lost that didn’t have to be (Eastern 401 and the Dallas micro-burst).
Easter 401 had two different computers on the auto-pilot - two different settings for release on the yoke - the pilot apparently bumped his and disengaged the autopilot. The co-pilot never felt his disengage. Early production plane I think - one side had I-7 the other had I-8.
They were all so concerned about making sure the gear was locked (nose gear) that they didn’t monitor the altimeter. When they went to turn back to the airport, they were at 50 feet and put a wingtip into the Everglades. It was at night so they had no visual reference either.
Loved it when you’d land and those RR engines would pull back the cowling a bit to let the thrust reversers pop-up.